Who has had low ferritin and what did you do about it?

[HidingInPlainView]

I have low ferritin as well and some sort of iron binding issue, and have had this problems since before taking TRT, before taking a GLP, and before my peptide journey. I have already been down the rabbit hole, upper/lower GI scope, oral iron, fecal hemoglobin tests, unine tests, genetic tests, modification of diet, supplements, changed cookware, labwork, imaging, all of it. 3 years later and thousands in lifestyle and diagnostic testing the new answer is I get an iron infusion once a year. Honestly it's not a big deal, my TRT I/M injections sometimes hurt more than the IV for iron infusion. Typically takes 45minutes and costs me about $50 total. Completely worth it.

 

[FlowerFairy]

You are of course correct. But in terms of the probabilities, a 15-45 yo female with low iron, the most common cause is going to be menses related, they just need more iron because of this, , so it gets depleted much more often, and obviously this is not the case in men, so a more serious cause is substantially more likely in men or non menstruating females. But this type of probabalistic logic will cause women with early GI cancers to be missed for longer. But you cannot do every test in every patient, that has its own set of consequences like false positives, so tests are more justified when the probability of finding a treatable cause is high enough to justify the costs and possible risks. I am not sure ideal answers exist for this type of problem. And yes the US does tend to have pretty ordinary primary care and preventive medicine, unless you are wealthy.

I’m 63. I’ve never had heavy menses, but I’ve not had menses for 20 years.